Chapter VIII: Caught in a Morass

"Well, here we are," announced Crazy Jane calmly.

"Oh, see those fellows run!" cried Harriet, gaspingly. "There they go!" she cried, in almost hysterical amusement, after she had picked herself up from the bottom of the car, where the collision had hurled her.

"I've a good notion to send the car straight through the fence, and chase that pair of skulkers out of the state!" Jane McCarthy proposed vindictively.

"Don't you try to do it," protested Harriet, now sobered by the realization of how reckless her companion might easily become. "Jane, _some day_ you'll really hit some one--that would be awful!"

"But I didn't half frighten that pair of rascals," returned Jane.

"If the men weren't frightened, then they'll never know fear," insisted Harriet Burrell. "How badly is the car damaged?"

"A blow on the nose, but the nose is not even out of joint," Jane answered coolly.

"Then let us get back to Miss Elting. How she'll scold!"

Miss Elting did scold when they reached camp with the car. It is to be feared, however, that Jane heard but little of the rebuke, for she was busy examining the damage done to her beloved car. She found that she could put the lamps in condition again. The guard rod in front of the radiator was also injured. Jane decided that this could be easily fixed.

"Girls, girls! What do you mean by such actions. Jane, I am amazed at you. Harriet, how could you?" Miss Elting rebuked them roundly.

"I--I guess it was impulse," answered Harriet, her face crimsoning under the reproachful words of the guardian. "Please don't scold us. We drove the men off. They will not trouble us again, I am quite sure."

"But they might have been run down, girls."

"Served them right if they had, bad luck to them!" retorted Jane mischievously. "However, 'all's well that ends well.' I'm for bed. What do you say?"

"Thay, why didn't you take me along?" demanded Tommy.

"It was quite bad enough without your assistance," replied the guardian. "Yes, we had better retire at once. Do you wish to put up your burglar alarm again, Harriet?"

"I do not think it will be necessary. The men won't prowl about the camp again to-night."

"No, they won't," agreed Jane, laughing uproariously. "They're running yet and they'll be running as long as their wind holds out. I wonder where they left the bear? Wouldn't it be fun if we could find the bear and let him loose?"

"Oh-h-h!" cried Margery. "How can you talk so, Jane?"

"Most certainly not," rebuked Miss Elting. "You have done quite enough as it is, without turning a bear loose on the community. You had better all go back to bed. What did you do to your car, Jane?"

"Bumped its nose, that's all. My only regret is that I didn't bump it against one of the Italians. I shouldn't have minded giving the bear a smash, too. Good night. Sweet dreams, darlin's!" Jane flounced into the tent and throwing off her bathrobe tumbled into bed, where she was soon sound asleep. The others did not quiet down quite so quickly. Harriet, especially, lay thinking over the experiences of the evening, and each time the thought of the pursuit of the Italians by Crazy Jane and her motor car occurred to her, Harriet would laugh softly to herself. She finally laughed herself to sleep, to be awakened in what seemed but a few moments later, by the blowing of a fish horn at the lips of Crazy Jane McCarthy. Day had dawned. The sun was just peeping over the eastern hills, the campfire was blazing and Miss Elting was getting breakfast.

Harriet quickly drew on her bathing suit, then, running out of the tent, plunged into the pond, uttering a little scream as the cold water enveloped her. None of the others had the courage to take a cold plunge that morning, as the air was rather cool. As for Harriet, she remained in the pond until Miss Elting insisted that she come ashore.

Camp was struck immediately after breakfast as the girls wished to make as much progress on their journey in the cool of the morning as possible. They struck camp with the skill of veterans, and within half an hour from the time they began the operation, everything was packed and stowed in the car.

"Now, don't you girls try to play me any more tricks to-day. I've got the food. If you don't find Jane, you get no supper. Understand?" laughed Jane.

"I've got thome bithcuit in my pack," piped Tommy.

"She won't have them for long," laughed Margery. "Tommy will have eaten the biscuits before she has gone a mile."

"Well, I don't eat tho much that I get fat," protested Tommy. "I gueth I know when to thtop."

Miss Elting was giving Jane final directions as to when and where to look for them, after which the four girls and their guardian, with their packs slung over their backs, stout sticks in their hands to assist them over rough places and also to frighten away troublesome dogs, started out on their journey of ten miles or more. They crossed the road, traveled up a hill and headed straight across country. The unmarked trail was rough and following it fatigued them considerably during the first two miles of their journey.

Shortly after eleven o'clock they came in sight of a remote farm house tucked away in a valley. Miss Elting decided to call there to get some milk. The woman of the house at first regarded them with suspicion, but she soon thawed under Miss Elting's gentle voice and winning smile.

The milk had not been skimmed. All the old milk had been churned that day. There was nothing left but buttermilk, the woman told them.

"Buttermilk!" cried the girls in chorus.

"I jutht love buttermilk!" declared Tommy. "Do you have buttermilk cowth? Ithn't that fine? I'm going to make my father buy me a buttermilk cow."

"Well, I was going to feed that buttermilk to the hogs, but seeing as you want it I suppose you may have it," decided the woman with some reluctance. "Do you like it cold?"

The party answered in the affirmative. The housewife lowered a pail of buttermilk into the well to cool, the party sitting down under an apple tree in the yard to rest themselves in the meantime. Margery lay down and went to sleep. Tommy amused herself by tickling Buster's ear with a long, dead stalk of timothy grass. Margery in her sleep thought it a fly. She fought the fly for some time, then finally opening her eyes, she caught Tommy red handed. Tommy fled into the farm house, where she pretended to be much interested in the housewife's work. She soon won her way into the good graces of the woman, and when, finally, the little lisping girl emerged from the house she was carrying a tin tray of food.

"Jutht thee what I've got," she cried. "It taketh Tommy Thompthon to get thingth to eat."

There were sandwiches, ginger cookies--great fat brown fellows--and a large dish of apple sauce.

"Oh, girls!" cried Margery her eyes glistening at the prospect of a feast. "I could die eating that food."

"Tommy, did you beg for this?" demanded the guardian.

"I gueth not. I jutht athked for it," returned Tommy calmly. "When you want thomething you want, jutht athk for it, and if you don't get it you haven't wasted anything but your breath."

"Madam, we are very grateful to you for this kindness, and will pay you before leaving," called Miss Elting to the housewife, who came out at this juncture to draw up the bucket of buttermilk from the cool depths of the well.

"You're welcome, I'm sure. I just baked to-day. Hope the cookies are all right. They didn't rise to suit me."

"They'd have burthted if they'd rithen any more," observed Tommy. She was rebuked by a look from Harriet.

"I hope you like them," smiled the woman.

"Oh, they are simply delicious," answered Harriet, with glowing eyes. "And that buttermilk! I never drank any that tasted better."

The party ate their fill of the good things, Margery doing even more than her share in disposing of both buttermilk and food. When they had finished, the tray was empty. The woman offered to bring them more food, but Miss Elting said "no." She gave the woman fifty cents despite the protests of the latter; then, after a brief rest, they started on again, first having expressed their thanks to the housewife, who stood in the door of her home watching the little party until it had passed out of sight.

About the middle of the afternoon the girls halted for another rest because of Margery's complaints that she was feeling ill.

"You ate too much," declared Harriet. "It doesn't do to eat so much when one is taking exercise as we are."

"Yeth. Buthter alwayth eatth too much," averred Tommy wisely.

"Oh!" moaned Margery Brown, sitting down all in a heap. "I can't walk another step to-day."

"Do you think we should leave her here?" asked Harriet, with solemn face but twinkling eyes.

"We shall see how she feels after I have given her something to settle her stomach," answered Miss Elting gravely.

"No, no, no!" wailed Margery. "Don't leave me. I'll go. Let me lie still and rest myself a little first."

"You thee Buthter, it doethn't pay to be tho greedy," admonished Tommy.

"Will you please make her stop?" begged Buster. "I can't stand it."

"Tommy!" rebuked Harriet. "Haven't you any consideration for Margery?"

"Yeth. Of courthe I have. But thhe doethn't detherve any thympathy."

"I'm ashamed of you, Tommy, dear. Wait. You, too, will be ill one of these days, then we shall make unpleasant remarks to you," warned Harriet.

Grace Thompson flushed guiltily.

"That ith too bad, Buthter. I didn't mean to make you feel worthe. Honetht I didn't. I hope you will be better pretty thoon." Tommy kissed her. "There. Ithn't that better?"

"Yes," admitted Margery. She already had taken some peppermint drops that Miss Elting had administered. After a further rest the girls assisted her to her feet and walked her slowly up and down the road. She was then permitted to sit down and rest again. Tommy, an expression of concern on her impish face, crouched before the now pale-faced Buster, munching a hard biscuit.

"Come, girls," said Miss Elting finally. "It is nearly five o'clock. We were to meet Jane at five, and we must have a good two hours' walk ahead of us still. Now that Margery is feeling so ill we shall not be able to make nearly as good time as that. I wonder if we hadn't better find the highway and finish the day's tramp on that?"

Margery protested that they must not change their plans on her account. She declared that she could walk as well as any of them.

"Margery will repent her rash assertions before she has gone a mile," laughed Hazel.

"No. I think she will be all right, now," replied the guardian. "Margery, if you find that you are feeling worse, at any time, you must be sure to tell me at once. Now, girls, march!"

The little company plodded along. Harriet linked one arm within Margery's. The latter, while feeling much improved, was still a little weak and Harriet Burrell's sturdy arm was appreciated.

About six o'clock they came to a long hill that sloped gently down into a valley. The greater part of the valley was covered with trees. It appeared to be a dense forest of second growth, the trees not being very large. The guardian consulted the map.

"Yes. We are on the right trail. We must keep straight on through the woods. According to this map there should be a trail that leads directly to the other side of the valley, and when we reach that point we shall have finished our day's journey."

"I am afraid we are going to be caught in the dark, Miss Elting," said Harriet.

"If we find the trail we do not need to worry about that. We can't very well go astray. I would suggest that, when we get down farther into the valley, we spread out and look for the wood trail. The one who first discovers it will shout. By taking this open formation we shall be saving time. It certainly seems to me that the distance to be covered to-day is more than ten miles."

"It does seem so," agreed Hazel. "But we have lost considerable time on the way."

They began spreading out when about half way down the hill, calling to each other good-naturedly, shouting as they got farther and farther away. Tommy discovered the road. She ran out into the field waving her arms and crying shrilly to attract the attention of her companions. They hurried toward her. The road, as they soon learned, was a mere path and one not much frequented at that, as was evidenced by the vegetation that grew in the middle of it.

"This looks to me like rather low swampy land," declared Harriet. "It is my idea that we had better stick closely to the path, or we may get into trouble." She did not say definitely what she feared, not wishing to needlessly terrorize Margery and Tommy. Miss Elting understood their danger, however. She nodded. Harriet started along the trail, leading the way, with the guardian following at her heels. They went on in this way for half an hour. The forest grew darker as they proceeded, the vegetation being thick in there. The day was waning rapidly. It was not very long before they were groping their way, rather than finding it by sight.

A scream from Margery, who was at the rear, brought them up sharply. Then Tommy's voice was raised in a sharp cry of alarm.

"What is it?" shouted Harriet.

"I'm sinking!" screamed Margery.

Harriet instantly knew the meaning of this. Her worst fears were confirmed. They were in the middle of a vast morass that stretched on each side of the trail.

"Thave me! Oh, thave me!" wailed Tommy.

Both girls were in the mud, but just how deeply Harriet Burrell did not know. Now Hazel added her cries to those of Tommy and Margery. She, too, had stepped off the path. Harriet could hear Hazel floundering in the mire. Miss Elting hurried back to them, regardless of her own safety.

"Be careful!" called Harriet warningly, groping her way to her companions who were crying and screaming for help.